


Extreme Measures

by SteveGarbage



Series: FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [15]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: Embla (Fire Emblem), Gen, Resplendent Hero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26406772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveGarbage/pseuds/SteveGarbage
Summary: A short story celebrating Alm's Resplendent Hero garb of Embla.
Series: FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722151
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Extreme Measures

Falchion blazed with light as it slashed down another enemy, crumbling the soldier of the dead at his feet.

Alm reset his guard as he looked forward on the field at the next wave of approaching soldiers from Hel.

"Your orders?" Alm asked as Princess Veronica approached at his side, her tome closed at held closely at her hip as her magic extinguished at her fingertips with a few colorful sparks. The princess' gold, black and red robes fluttering in the breeze as the rabble of hundreds of dead warriors charged down the blight-blackened hill toward them, a plume of dust kicking up behind them.

Alm used the moment's respite to catch his breath as he studied Veronica's face. She squinted and scowled, her mouth bending into almost a growl.

"Destroy them," she commanded.

"Yes, Princess," Alm said as he raised Falchion high above his head, the sword blazing as he raised his voice to boom over the battlefield. "Soldiers! Reform ranks! Prepare to charge!"

The Emblian soldiers behind him hustled to reset in their formations — armor in the front, infantry in the second rank and foot mages and archers behind in the center column. To the right and the left, the cavalry both on the ground and in the air gathered to execute flanking maneuvers and encircle the enemy once engaged by the larger center force.

The ranks were thinning as Veronica pushed her army without hesitation deeper into Hel, crushing the forces of the dead. They came at the Emblian army in waves like rabid dogs, ferocious but mindless as they crashed against shield and blade. Without their Queen to lead them, the dead army had devolved into little more than ravenous warbands.

The Princess had marshaled the army and made the order to march into Hel and crush whatever resistance stood before them. Yes, some of the more aggressive raiding parties would cross the border into Embla from time to time, but the size of the army she had gathered and the route she had drawn across the border constituted more of an invasion than a defense maneuver.

Veronica had asked him to lead her army. Normally, he might have said no, until she had informed him of her purpose for driving so deep into the heart of Hel where no living being would willingly choose to walk.

There were rumors her brother Bruno had been spotted there and she needed to find him.

During his time in Embla, he had learned more about the princess' older brother. Despised by the royal family, they had killed his mother and exiled him to the edge of the realm. He had gone, in disguise in his youth, to Askr. He became Zacharias and befriended the Askran royals. In his time there, he had trained them, served with them and helped them grow.

He had done that in hopes that some day they would eventually destroy his homeland.

Alm couldn't help but be reminded of his own father, the father he had never known, who had sent him as a child to an enemy nation to learn and grow and to eventually rise up to destroy his homeland in hopes that, through conflict, Alm would gain the power necessary to finally put an end to a foe far more powerful and threatening than Emperor Rudolf ever could have been.

Alm knew, better than most, that a man did not flippantly resort to such extremes for petty reasons. A man willing to sacrifice and see his own home scattered to the wind did not do so lightly. And if Prince Bruno had been driven to resort to such measures, Alm trusted in his heart that the reasoning must be good.

He had also heard the rumors that the Emblian royal family was afflicted by a generational madness, one that had turned Veronica's father from a peaceable man into a warmonger. There were signs, too, that Veronica battled some dark specter of her own, that her mind was not always her own. Was that the true reason Bruno conspired against his own people?

Alm was also all too familiar with the concept of good women succumbing to dark influences.

And so, when Veronica had asked him to lead her army to find her brother and presented him with a kingly set of armor to don as he led Embla to war, he had agreed.

If it took cutting their way into the heart of Hel to see their mission through, Alm would lead them.

"Warriors of Embla!" Alm called down the line as the warrior of the dead were nearly upon them. "CHAAARGE!"

He sprinted forward with his soldiers, the noise of shouting, armor rattling and the crash of soldier on soldier as the two armies collided were nearly deafening. He felt the familiar surge that ran up his arms from the impact of his blazing blade finding purchase against another enemy's armor.

He would lead Embla through this conflict, bloodshed and death.

Extreme measures were sometimes necessary to usher in peace and prosperity.


End file.
